Topic 1: Tsarist Rule of Russia 1905-14 Flashcards
1
Q
What year did Nicholas II become Tsar?
A
1894
2
Q
When was the start of the Russo-Japanese war?
A
1904
3
Q
What happened on the 22nd January 1905?
A
Bloody Sunday
4
Q
What happened in May 1905?
A
The Battle of Tsushima and the end of the Russo-Japanese war?
5
Q
What happened on the 27 June 1905?
A
The Potemkin Mutiny
6
Q
Who became Prime Minister in 1906?
A
Stolypin
7
Q
What Laws were published in April 1906?
A
Fundamental Laws
8
Q
What reforms began in November 1906?
A
Stolypin’s Land Reforms
9
Q
What happens between April - July 1906?
A
The First Duma
10
Q
What happens between February and June 1907?
A
The Second Duma
11
Q
What happens between November 1907 and June 1912?
A
The Third Duma
12
Q
What happens on the 4th April 1912?
A
Lena Goldfields Strike
13
Q
What happens between November 1912 and August 1914?
A
The Fourth Duma
14
Q
What happens in July 1914
A
The General Strike
15
Q
How was Russia governed in 1905?
A
- Tsar ruled himself (Autocracy)
- In many ways, Russia in 1894 was like England in the Middle Ages
- Deeply religious (Orthodox Church)
16
Q
What were the problems with Nicholas II?
A
- He was indecisive
- He was not particularly intelligent
- He was inflexible
- He was not able to respond to great pressure
17
Q
Which country would Nicholas II have been a good ruler of as it was a Constitutional Monarchy?
A
Britain
18
Q
Who was Nicholas II’s tutor?
A
Konstantin Pobedonostev (The Grand Inquisitor)
19
Q
What percentage of the population did the aristocracy make up and how much land did they have?
A
1% but owned 25% of the land
20
Q
Who were the middle classes made up of?
A
Bankers and rich capitalists
21
Q
What was the size of Russia’s population in 1905?
A
160 million
22
Q
What percentage of the population was made up of peasants?
A
Over 80%
23
Q
Until 1861, the peasants had been ___
A
Serfs
24
Q
What word was banned in the 1890s?
A
Famine
25
Why were the peasants discontented?
- They had to pay Redemption Payments
- There was an immense wealth gap
- Famine was not dealt with and was a banned word.
26
What kinds of cities were heavily industralised?
St. Petersburg and Moscow
27
True or false: Trade Unions were illegal
True
28
Why were the industrial workers discontented?
- Working conditions were appalling
- Low pay and long hours
- Trade unions were illegal
29
Why were the middle classes discontented?
They wanted change in Russia but scared of revolutionary radicals
They wanted a constitutional monarchy?
30
What percentage of Russia' population were not of Russian nationality?
56%
31
What is Russification?
Restricting the influence of non-Russian national minorities by emphasising the superiority of all things Russian
32
Why were national minorities discontented?
- Russification
- Discrimination against national minorities
33
What types of national minority groups were part of Russia?
Baltic Germans
Armenians
Ukrainians
34
Political parties were illegal in Russia until when?
1905
35
What were Socialist Revolutionaries and what did they want?
- Gained recruits from urban workforce
- Most popular with the peasantry
- Banned in 1917
- Involved in a number of assassinations
36
The Social Democrats split in 1903. Which two groups emerged?
Bolsheviks and Mensheviks
37
Who were the Bolsheviks?
- Believed the party should be small and secret
- Felt a large party could be infiltrated
- Leader: Lenin
38
Who were the Mensheviks?
- Believed the party should be a mass movement
- It wanted to work with groups like trade unions
- Leader: Martov
- Trotsky was a Menshevik (until 1917)
39
What was the Tsar's secret police called?
Okhrana
40
How did the Tsar control Russia?
- Censorship - radical ideas were censored
- Exile to Siberia
- Okhrana
41
What were the long term triggers of the 1905 Revolution?
- Tsar Nicholas II's inability to rule
- Discontent of the peasants
- Discontent of the middle classes
- Discontent of the industrial workers
- Discontent of the national minorities
42
What were the short term triggers of the 1905 Revolution?
- Russo-Japanese War
- Bloody Sunday
43
How did the Russo-Japanese War lead to the 1905 Revolution?
- Russia invaded Japan over Manchuria
- Russia faced serious defeats
- After the Battle of Tsushima, they were forced to make peace
- The war made economic and food problems worse
44
How did Bloody Sunday lead to the 1905 Revolution?
- 22nd January 1905
- Protestors, led by Father Gapon, were fired upon by Mounted Cossacks
- Over 100 protestors killed
- Strikes broke out in St Petersburg and other major cities as a result
45
What was the Potemkin Mutiny?
- 14th June: Cooks complained meat was riddled with maggots
- Valenchuk (a spokesperson) went to Commander Gilyarovsky
- Gilyarovsky shot him and was thrown overboard by sailors
- A red flag was raised
- The Potemkin sailed to Odessa where strikes had been occurring
46
How often were the army used to put down rebellion between January to October 1905?
2,700
47
How did the peasants rebel during the 1905 Revolution?
- 3,000 manors were destroyed
- Peasants created communes by taking land that their parents and grandparents had worked on.
48
How did strikes in the cities help the 1905 Revolution?
In January 1905, 400,000 workers went on strike
Socialist leaders returned from exile and workers began to rally left-wing parties
49
What was the St Petersburg Soviet?
- Set up in October 1905
- Only lasted from September to early December
50
How did national minorities add to the 1905 Revolution?
Strikes and protests were intense, especially in Latvia and Poland
In Riga, 15,000 workers marched against the Tsarist regime
51
Who told Nicholas II that he would have to make some concessions to end the revolution?
Sergie Witte
52
What was the October Manifesto?
- Created a Duma
- Freedom of speech, assembly, and worship
- Political parties could exist
- Trade unions were legalised
53
What were the negatives of the October Manifesto?
- It did nothing to improve conditions for the workers, peasants, or armed forces
- The Dumas were largely ineffective
54
What were the positives of the October Manifesto for Nicholas II?
It split those wanting reform and those wanting wider revolution
55
After the 1905 Revolution, what was Nicholas II known as?
Nicholas the Bloody
56
What happened to the leaders of the St Petersburg Soviet in 1905?
They were arrested
57
What did Stolypin do to help end the 1905 Revolution?
- 60,000 opponents were killed or exiled
- Everyone was forced to carry internal passports
- Travelers had to be registered with the police
- Press still had little freedom
- The Okhrana still rooted out anyone that was a threat
58
What did the noose become known as after the 1905 Revolution?
Stolypin's necktie
59
How were the movements of the 1905 Revolution not unified?
- The peasant rebellions had peaked in the summer
- Worker unrest lacked strategic planning
- The SRs and SDs were limited in their involvement
60
What were the Fundamental Laws?
They gave Nicholas II great control over the Dumas
61
What were the Fundamental Laws?
The duma’s power was matched by an upper house which would always vote the way the Tsar wanted
The Tsar kept control over the armed forces and foreign policy
The Tsar would choose all government ministers who could veto any duma legislation
The Tsar could dissolve the duma at any time
The Tsar could pass any laws while the duma were not sitting (article 87)
Only the Tsar could make changes to article 87
62
What was Nicholas II's attitude towards the Duma?
- He did not trust it
- He wanted the Duma to support him
63
What positives did Nicholas II see in the Dumas?
They gave him popularity
64
What was the First Duma?
Central parties have a lot of seats
Left-wing revolutionary parties boycotted the elections to the duma
Main demand was land reform and wanted the State Council abolished
The Tsar did not like their push to appease the peasants and dissolved the duma
65
What was the Second Duma?
Trudoviks (very left-wing) are the biggest party but not a majority
There were over 200 left-wing deputies and was much more radical than the first duma
‘The Duma of National Anger’
The prime minister Stolypin realised that the second Duma was more radical and dissolved it
66
What was the Third Duma?
The electoral system changed so only 1 in 6 peasants/working class could vote
Right wing parties dominated - Octobrists have 154 deputies
Conservatives had a majority
Stolypin worked with the third duma and managed to pass land reforms
A law on universal education was passed at a minimum of four years education
Steps taken to modernise the army
67
What was the Fourth Duma?
Similar political composition to the third duma
Met infrequently
Did attempt to reform the Orthodox Church and supported the law of 1908 to provide universal education
68
How did Stolypin reform land?
- He wanted to modernise farming
- He wanted to create a peasant landowning class
69
What was Stolypin's 'wager on the strong'?
Peasants were allowed to leave the mir to consolidate their strips of land
The land bank was set up to resettle peasants in Siberia
Schemes to resettle the peasants in Siberia
70
Were Stolypin's land reforms successful?
Between 1905-1907, 3.5 million peasants moved to Siberia
By 1914, only 10% of households in European Russia lived on farms separated from the commune
Those who left the Mir (‘Stolypin separators’) were seen as traitors
The reform was more successful in the west (e.g. Ukraine and Belorussia)
By 1917, peasant unrest was sweeping through Russia
The ‘wager on the strong’ benefitted Kulaks (wealthy peasants) but did little to alleviate the distress of poorer villagers
71
What did industrial production increase by 1914?
100%
72
How many strikes were there between 1911-14
In 1911: 466
In 1914: Over 3,000
73
Between 1912 and 1914, how many workers were involved in strikes?
Over 3 million
74
Where was the Lena Goldfields Strike?
Siberia
75
What happened during the Lena Goldfields Strike?
Striking workers protested about degrading working conditions, low wages and a 14 hour day
Protests about rotten horsemeat they were expected to eat sparked the strikes
They clashed with troops, over 200 people were killed and many injured
The Okhrana appears to have acted as agents to identify the leaders
Kerensky led an investigation into the massacre
76
What happened during the 1914 General Strike?
July 1914 saw a general strike in St. Petersburg
Many progressive members of the duma supported the strike
Entry into WWI later that month stopped it getting out of hand
Only ¼ of the workforce were involved (compared to ⅘ in February 1917)
